Friends! Today we have the pleasure of getting to know Laura Silverman, founder of Zero Proof Nation and Booze Free in DC.

Founded in November 2019, Zero Proof Nation is a platform focused on non alcoholic culture, beverages, people and brands. ZPN started as an IG feed where Laura would feature beverage brand founders in the non-alcoholic space & tell their stories. It evolved when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and became an even bigger platform, now featuring a blog, several non-alcoholic resource directories, and more. Most recently, Laura launched the first ever *global map* highlighting booze-free bars and non-alcoholic bottle shops around the world, ranging from brick-and-mortars, to pop-ups to e-commerce companies. Booze Free in DC is her secondary blog and platform, devoted to exploring the Washington DC area from a non-alcoholic perspective, which was started in January 2020.

Laura has been alcohol-free for 15+ years (woah) and is FULL of sobriety insight. She shares a ton of background about the evolution of the non-alcoholic industry in this episode. We also cover:

• Starting Zero Proof Nation & Booze Free in DC within 2 months of each other.
• How the non-alcoholic industry started and expanded after the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Laura’s experience building the global map.
• What sobriety was like before the post-Covid non-alcoholic boom.
• Anonymous culture and stigmas around alcohol use disorder and recovery.
• Laura's drinking & sobriety story and what it was like to get sober at the age of 24.
• Her experience getting hospitalized in NYC for alcohol poisoning in her twenties, and how this impacted her journey long term.
• [Content warning] Living with trauma, anxiety and HSV-2, and how this all intersects with her sobriety.
• Her experience in an intensive outpatient rehab program.
• How recovery and sobriety has changed for her over time.

To learn more about Laura's work, follow her on Instagram at:

@ZeroProofNation

@WeAreSober

@BoozeFreeInDC